Gmail just prompt me that it has a new offering,
it invites me to send SMS to my friends for free
this is a tempting offer from a for-profit organization and one might think what Google gets out of it?
considering the search business yields little potential, i do not often send valuable facts via SMS, i do make contact, confirm one or send small tokens of info valuable to none but the recipient.
the other much spoke about niche may be more interesting, it is the social networks of course, Google have been trying relentlessly to make headway in this area with little success. attaching a phone number to a contact will allow Google to expand its new buzz and wave efforts to the mobile world.
evaluating the traffic and data (they do process the messages you know) in these networks will for sure make for the money those SMS’s originally cost.
this is all very well, my issue, as in the buzz application, concerns with privacy, why, Google, do you think i will expose my friends phones to your network, as i see it, if i haven’t entered my phone number in my Google profile it means that I’m not interested in Google (or anyone else) knowing it. please don’t make my friend tell it.